Coach Train Learn

Managing Expectations

There’s a small action you can take, right away, that will build confidence in you personally, as well as ensuring that the trust that your people have in you is high.

I’m pretty sensitive to it – perhaps it’s just the way I am – but it’s a very important behavior that I notice easily when it happens.

You see, I really expect people to do what they say they will. It’s not much to ask!

Now, that doesn’t seem so hard now, does it? well, you might be surprised. In fact managers so often fail to deliver, it’s little wonder that they fail to create the respect and trust that they need to be effective managers.

And there’s such a simple way to ensure that you are seem to deliver what you say you will.

Under-promise.

Here’s an example.

I was once placed in a tricky situation. The organization I worked for had a rigid salary review process – one that once a salary raise was in place (and it was an annual activity) there was no way to change it.

Yet we had to make the budgets balance before we could tell out people what they had achieved and were going to shortly receive.

One of my supervisors was not happy with the outcome of her review and came to tell me so. In fact, I had inherited the review that year (from a previous manager) and it seemed to me that there was just cause for her concern.

But I couldn’t fix it there and then. In fact, although there was a small window to ‘fix’ such matters – at the half year mark – I wasn’t prepared to ‘promise’ an increase then even.

What I did do was promise to take a further look at her situation and be as fair with her as possible and depending on her meeting some criteria we agreed.

I was never perfect at this. I did notice that because I held ‘keeping promises’ in high regard in my business life, I would always do my best to ensure that I met the expectations others had of me.

Under-promising has so many benefits – and it’s a tactic that is very worthy of consideration, particularly when you have taken time to create relationships with your people upfront.

Attitudes to Risk Taking

How to Manage 14% Better

Many organisations now use surveys to see how they are doing. Some are focused at customers and clients, whilst others look at how the employees think their workplace is.

The majority of employee surveys fell out of a brilliant piece of work by two researchers at Gallup – Curt Coffman and Marcus Buckingham – and led to their iconic book ‘First Break All the Rules’.

They found that how employees responded to just 12 statements about the work experience would dictate the profitability of any team, department or organisation. They called these Q12.

Using Q12 required a licence from Gallup (and hence why they aren’t shown here, though you can find them if you Google them), so many organisations pinched the concept and just wrote the questions a bit differently.

In fact, over time they have added significantly to the 12 original statements, with many employees being asked to respond to up to 50 or more. Which rather defeats the object! Still, many HR and leadership teams couldn’t help themselves when given the opportunity to confuse and irritate their people!

A couple of the questions related to the employees experience of their manager. These related to interactions the manager had with them -  and how recently, so I can share a story.

Jim (name changed) had faced a dire problem. On his promotion, he had inherited an operation with problems all over the place, which he’d had to fix. In the first year, sorting out core issues had been a focus expected of him by his own superiors.

When the employee survey was in, he didn’t do so well in the measures of him (though some results might have related to the previous guy too). In year two, he made a very conscious effort to be more visible to his people; to speak with them more often and to, well, be a bit happier too!

The year two results showed him still below the average for managers like him, but they had improved by over 14% on the previous year.

The moral of the story? If you want to engage better with your people (= be more effective with them), get out there and spend time with them – all of them.

You know it makes sense.

You’re in Charge

Noticing is The Skill to Build

Self-Awareness Rules